"Adults have sucked Momoy leaves to foretell the future and to prevent damage to their souls by evil. If an adult saw a coyote walking like a man, in other words taking human form, this meant the coyote would soon take the adult's soul unless a Momoy leaf was sucked"
Frank Lemos, Chumash
Healing with Medinical Plants of the West
by Cecilia Garcia
Coyote is still roaming urban LA, turning up in parks, even loping across major intersections. our foul modern souls may be beyond his temptation, but if you happen to own one worth worrying over, hear this: Momoy, or Sacred Datura, is still here too, and even easier to find. to come upon anything sacred, not to mention beautiful and sweet smelling, at a freeway off-ramp might seem like a victory, but in this day Datura has been demoted to "weed" just as Coyote has been reduced to "pest". but these relics of aboriginal Los Angeles - who knew her when she was loamy and sweet, generations apart from the jaded, paved lady we see now - are precious indeed.
in
Chumash legend "the world was originally inhabited 'the First People', supernatural beings who were regarded as the tribal ancestors. The world of the First People was destroyed by a primal flood which transformed these ancestors into all the birds, animals and plants of today. Among the First People was an old Grandmother known as 'Momoy', who had the gift of clairvoyance. When the flood came she was transformed into the Datura plant. The descendants of the First People (i.e. the Chumash) can share in her gift of clairvoyance by partaking of her sacrament. According to the myth, Momoy washed her hands in water and the Initiate drinks the resulting liquid. Thereupon he falls into a deep sleep in which he meets his animal-spirit helper, communicates with his ancestors or has visionary dreams about his future."
Carlos Castaneda's accounts are famously problematic, but Dan Juan [using another of Datura's assortment of nicknames] got this much right:
"The devil's weed has four heads: the root, the stem and leaves, the flowers, and the seeds. Each one of them is different and whoever becomes her ally must learn about them in that order. The most important head is in the roots. The power of the devil's weed is conquered through the roots. The stem and leaves are the head that cures maladies; properly used, this head is a gift to mankind. The third head is in the flowers, and it is used to turn people crazy, or to make them obedient, or to kill them..... the seeds; they are the fourth head of the devil's weed and the most powerful of the four."
all over the world, the various Datura cousins are vital to
indigenous traditions. from Africa to the Americas her powers of clairvoyance and guardianship of important secrets are unquestioned; Yogis and Gypsies alike want to get all up on her aphrodisiacal potential; and in the Carribean she is called Zombie Cucumber- say no more.
with power comes peril and, make no mistake, these
nightshades can absolutely be deadly. a mildly cautionary tale surrounds the origins of the common name
Jimsonweed:
"The James-Town Weed (which resembles the Thorny Apple of Peru, and I take to be the plant so call'd) is supposed to be one of the great coolers in the world. This being an early plant, was gather'd very young for a boil'd salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon (1676); and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.
In this frantic condition they were confined, lest the should, in their folly, destroy themselves - though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed."
-The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705
that would have been a rather long time to wallow in excrement.
even when approached with the correct reverence and knowledge, she's never
harmless. Sacred Datura was intrinsic to the rites of passage of many native tribes of California. most of the young initiates returned from their 'journey' with knowledge and an animal spirit guide, but a few were swallowed whole.
Month of Datura is what the Chumash call January.
